State Shines Light on County Wages

By San Mateo County, California [Public domain], from Wikimedia CommonsThe State of California Controller’s office has just released the latest wage numbers for public employees. According to the State, San Mateo County pays its employees less and pays less in benefits than Alameda County.

San Mateo county had 8346 employees and total wages of $586,956,888 in 2017. The total contribution to retirement and health plans was $242,437,346. Population for the county was about 770,000 residents. This compares to Alameda county which had 1.66 million residents and $805 million in total wages and about $408 million in contributions to retirement and health programs.

Average wages for Alameda County employees were about $77,800 compared to $70,300 for San Mateo County. Also, average contributions to Alameda County benefits on a per employee basis were about $10,000 more per year than for San Mateo County employees. While Alameda County has more than double the population of San Mateo County, it only has about 2000 more public employees.

The highest earning San Mateo County employee, according to the states report, is the Supervising Adult Psychiatrist who pulled in $444,000+ in wages and $116,000 in additional benefits. This position was followed by the San Mateo County Manager, John L. Maltbie, whose wages and benefits were $442,336 and $151,481 respectively. The Alameda County Administrator had wages of more than $501,000 and benefits of more than $273,000 and was Alameda County’s highest paid employee.

The highest wage earners in San Mateo City in 2016 were a fire captain followed by the city manager, and Chief of Police.

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